The cost of educating our kids keeps rising. This is true whether your child is attending an independent school, college or university. How do families cover the costs? One thing is for certain: the stereotype of TCS being filled exclusively with kids from affluent families is a thing of the past.

I was recently reading an article in the winter 2020 edition of Independent School, a U.S. publication produced by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). In the article, NAIS Vice President, Mark J. Mitchell, sheds some light on how families who have chosen an independent school are able to afford to do so. A NAIS online survey (“The Parents’ Financial Statement,” 2018-2019; 1,891 respondents) provides Mitchell with some data that offers insight into the choices parents are making in order to fund their child’s independent school education. I share some of these key findings below:

Why do we not say nice things, more often, to the people we care about? Or compliment our neighbours and colleagues more frequently? To take it to the extreme, why do we wait for the funeral or obituary to put our thoughts to paper or allow ourselves to be emotional about how much somebody meant to us?

If you feel you have to wait for the “right” time, or a better time, might I insist that you use this upcoming holiday time to your advantage?

Make a point of telling your kids, your spouse, your family and friends how fortunate you are to have them in your life. Then, go one step further and tell them why.

You will not regret it. And the recipient of your thoughts will feel better having heard them.

You have nothing to lose.

And with that thought in mind, let me convey to all our TCS families that I am most grateful for your confidence and trust in Trinity College School. My life is richer and more enjoyable knowing you and your children.

We know teenagers make mistakes associated with risk-taking and experimentation. And we recognize that the transition to independence and adulthood has officially started around a young person’s 16th birthday.  We also appreciate that teens are not “bad” people for trying and testing substances, adults, or the rules.  Why, then, is the School so punitive when it comes to smoking and vaping?

Let me explain.

First and foremost, in spite of what you may have heard to the contrary, the smoking of tobacco and marijuana, and the vaping of nicotine, are illegal in the province of Ontario for anyone under the age of 19.  

Second, our school’s mission is based upon the development of good habits of the heart and mind, not bad habits, particularly ones that are known to be unhealthy!

There is a third reason.

While we all have opinions about the seemingly perpetual political turmoil in the United States, one thing has been a constant over the past half century: the U.S. has been a world leader in entrepreneurship and innovation.

Here is an interesting, counterintuitive statistic, given the above fact, about our friends to the south: American students perennially rank poorly on international tests in mathematics, reading and science. According to a Washington Post article, an “international test, conducted in 2012, found that among the 34 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States ranked 27th in math, 20th in science and 17th in reading.” (“Why America’s Obsession with STEM education is dangerous,” by Fareed Zakaria, March 26, 2015)